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The rules for Pandemic call for shuffling the Player deck and distributing the initial cards to each player. The remaining 50 or so cards are then seeded with epidemic cards by this rule:

Divide the remaining Player cards into a number of piles according to how diﬃcult you’d like to make the game. Make the piles as equal in size as is possible.

Shuﬄe an Epidemic card into each pile. Stack the piles on top of each other to form the Player Draw Pile. (If the piles aren’t exactly the same size, stack them so that the larger piles are above the smaller piles.) Put any excess Epidemic cards back into the box.

In practice this is the longest setup step for a game which already has a substantial setup phase. Does anyone have any tips or tricks for getting this done faster?

I like this option. I'll have to try it out the next time I play. However, I think I would add a cut of the deck after combining the piles. That way you don't know that the first epidemic is not near the top. It does open up the possibility of a back-to-back epidemic, though.
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ToddSep 9 '11 at 3:17

4

@Todd actually since the epidemic card will never be the top card, a normal cut will keep the distribution (no doubles) while randomizing the very first. Good idea!
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Neal TibrewalaSep 9 '11 at 15:58

@Neal Oh yeah, good point. I was thinking wrong. That makes it better.
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ToddSep 10 '11 at 15:47

1

I dislike this approach as it makes epidemics too predictable. Epidemics are not supposed to be this predictable.
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MattOct 17 '12 at 16:08

We combine dealing and making the piles. Deal a round of cards, deal a couple into each pile, iterate. Then shuffle each pile with an epidemic. Meanwhile, another player shuffles the infection deck and sets up the initial infections.

If we're playing with new(ish) players we have the most-experienced players do the setup so the less-experienced have more time to study their initial cards and the board.